non_radical_centrist
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User ID: 1327
non_radical_centrist
1yr ago
I don't know much about mental disorder taxonomies. Looking through Scott's post, my guess as to his response to this would be "That would be great! But you'd never get anyone to actually use your system because people would still be shouting about how homosexuality appears anywhere in it, even if it's under the 'don't stigmatize these' table". But that's just my guess.
non_radical_centrist
1yr ago
I don't think this will happen, I think Trump will be looked back on a similar-ish level to Nixon where people can't seriously say a new Republican is morally worse. Although they'll probably get around this by frequently saying "While this new Republican candidate isn't as morally bad as Trump, they're still really bad, and will actually be worse on net because they're halfway intelligent and will accomplish goals Trump never could".
non_radical_centrist
1yr ago
If I felt a non zero unit of empathy for every dying child in this world I'd be emotionally crippled by the weight of the world's suffering.
I don't think it's that hard to feel different amounts of non-zero empathy for different people proportional to how close they are to you. To save the life of your child? Spend up to 50% of your wealth. A parent? 10%. A close friend? 0.1%. A foreigner? 0.01%. Made up numbers that would be different for everyone of course, but I think that's the general premise most people actively live life by. I can't imagine if there was a charity that could legitimately save an African life for a penny, maybe because there's some immediate crisis that needs every cent it can get immediately and the big actors can't respond fast enough, and you knew all this for certain, you wouldn't donate. And drawing the line somewhere between a penny and $10k to save a life is reasonable. But people are just drawing their lines at different points, and there's nothing wrong with that.
non_radical_centrist
2d ago
I can't pretend to know the exact numbers, but I think you're vastly underestimating the danger men pose women, and the numbers can shift truly massively. I think a lone woman walking through a busy mall in day time is almost certainly will not experience any violence. There is a slim chance, there are some mentally ill psychos out there who randomly assault women, but it's neglible.
Meanwhile, I think the odds of a lone woman walking through certain Chicago streets at night is almost certain to experience violence. Far greater than just 1% at least, despite how low her odds were around dozens of men in the mall.
Being in a random forest with a truly random man would be somewhere in between those. The man, on average, would probably be worse than the men in the mall, since a random man could be a guy in jail or a 3rd world militant, but also is probably better than the men hanging out on the Chicago streets at night. Both of them being alone would be in between the woman being surrounded by civilized strangers in a mall and the man's criminal buddies on the street too. I'd give somewhere between 0.1-5%, personally, of being assaulted.
So if I was a woman, I'd probably take a man over a black bear, but not other types of bears.
non_radical_centrist
25d ago
I'd be more worried about the conflict dragging in Pakistan/India/China who are borderline undeveloped themselves and already have nukes
non_radical_centrist
27d ago
I recommend Khan Academy as an intro. They have video lessons, and built in problems for their website. And being able to actually solve some problems is necessary to really understand economics, stuff like macroeconomics can be pretty unintuitive to think about.
non_radical_centrist
30d ago
For some people it's a core part of their identity. For other people it's just a shorthand to describe their dating practices. That's true for all sexualities.
non_radical_centrist
30d ago
Sexuality covers a wide range of things. Ultimately they're just a shorthand to describe what sort of sexual activities someone gets up to. The words don't necessarily represent just what gets someone's dick up. Someone could get horny at the sight of both men and women, but ardently only sleep with one gender; are they bisexual? I think it's entirely up to them whether they want to call themselves bisexual or not.
non_radical_centrist
1mo ago
So how does a politician apply that rule when it comes to an issue that's a values judgement, like abortion, or the best amount to redistribute from the rich to the poor, or gun rights, or freedom of speech vs hate speech?
non_radical_centrist
1mo ago
Those might be better options, but that dodges the question of what responsibility the politician has when their voters say they really want price controls but would in reality prefer one of those options, or even doing nothing, over price controls.
non_radical_centrist
1mo ago
So is a politician justified in restricting the rights of minorities, if the populace is deeply bigoted and actually want the politician to go even further?
non_radical_centrist
1mo ago
That's kind of my point. The people think they want one thing, but they really want another. I don't think people really want to erase minority cultures or kill a minority population with roving death camps either, they just get tricked into thinking they want it. But what rights do politicians have to bypass what the people think they want?
non_radical_centrist
1mo ago
People are already achieving that level of communication with randos in online comments sections. Pen pals rarely formed very tight bonds.
non_radical_centrist
1mo ago
What does gold pill mean? I've heard of red, blue, black, white, and pink pills, but not gold.
I really don't know what Objectivism is. I've just never really seen anyone defend or explain it in depth, and I've never seen anyone smart recommend it besides Rand herself.
non_radical_centrist
1mo ago
I quite like fast food and if a quarter pounder with fries and a drink was $6 I would probably go to McDonald’s frequently when I didn’t feel like cooking, but it’s $12.29 (just checked)
They frequently have coupons built into the app you can use. Also, often the drink prices are very inflated- you can save a couple bucks easily by using a reusable water, even if you just fill it with soda you bought at the grocery store.
non_radical_centrist
1mo ago
and geopolitically, a local boot to put on Arabs in the region is very useful.
And to have a competent ally in the area against Iran, who's probably the US' most dangerous enemy these days after China, Russia, and maybe North Korea.
non_radical_centrist
1mo ago
I love feedly as a RSS feed of webcomics and blogs.
Libgen+google play books is where I do almost all my reading by pirating then uploading books.
non_radical_centrist
1mo ago
Touche.
non_radical_centrist
1mo ago
Thanks, fixed now
non_radical_centrist
1mo ago
Thanks, fixed now
non_radical_centrist
2mo ago
I meant more why do you think that's a sign that the world would be better off with the West destroyed.
non_radical_centrist
2mo ago
Why?
non_radical_centrist
3mo ago
Fixed, thank you
non_radical_centrist
4mo ago
Great essay, basically my exact thoughts on Gladwell. I've seen Pinker recommended before, but I think there's a lot of overlap with stuff I've already read. I'm sure it's all great stuff, but idk really the point of reading a book if I'm already fully convinced on its conclusion.
Housing requires nearby jobs, land nearby jobs is relatively rare, sometimes the value from being nearby jobs vastly outweighs value from being arable. In any case, if we just built dense housing like apartment buildings with no parking lots, pretty little arable land would need to be built over; it's only suburbs or urban sprawl with massive highways that waste tons of arable land.
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